Your Lawyer Is Not Excited About Your Case
I got one phone call today from a client who called me about an injury case. He told me,
"I spoke with this lawyer. My cousin recommended him, and I'm not sure if he likes my case. I'm not sure if he feels confident about my case. He asked me if I just wanted money or do I want to go to the doctor and he told me that my case was probably worth a couple of thousand dollars and i just had a really bad taste in my mouth from talking to him".
He wanted to talk to me and let me tell you what happens. When I talk to somebody who's already working with another lawyer, I don't like to take cases off other attorneys. If my client or somebody who calls me has already agreed to work with another attorney, I'm more likely to call that attorney and tell them
"hey your client is really unhappy, but it doesn't sound like it's a deal breaker, sounds like they're just a little frustrated or they're not understanding what's going on".
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Smooth Things Over With The Attorney
I'll call the attorney and smooth things over. More than half the time, the attorney thanks me and calls the client and smooth things over. Of course the other half of the time, there have been times where I've called an attorney three or four times because their client keeps calling me and they won't talk to their client. So I think if an attorney loses a case under those circumstances, they've got it coming.
My point is, this guy called me and he's like "I'm not sure if my attorney believes in my case, I'm not sure if the attorney likes my case, he didn't seem friendly like you are on the telephone". This is what I told him. If you're looking for an attorney to just be a yes-man, just tell you "oh your case is worth a million dollars, it's going to be easy, it's going to be like shooting fish in the barrel".
Two Kinds Of Lawyers
There's really like two kinds of attorneys. There's the kind of attorney who you can bring him the most screwed up challenging injury case ever in the history of injury cases. And that attorney is going to tell you
"Oh yeah, sign on the dotted line, hire me, I'm going to get you so much money for your case. This is a great case, I'm going to make you a lot of money, yeah just sign on the dotted line. ".
Of course after that happens, you never hear from the attorney. And then a year and a half late, they call you with a $3000 settlement or a $500 settlement or something like that.
The other attorney is more like my style. Which is I'm going to ask you questions about the case, some of them are going to be hard questions. And then I'm going to tell you the truth. It's better for you to know if your case has challenges. Everyone wants to be told that they've got an easy case and it's going to settle in a week for a million bucks. That's like our wish list if we're having problems in an injury case.
Set Realistic Expectations
The truth is, it's more important for you to know the challenges of the case and have a realistic expectation. So in my opinion, if you talk to a lawyer who says "oh yeah it's a home run, I'm going to make you rich, I'll be done in a month, I'll get you an offer this kind of thing". This is not a serious consultation, this is a sales job by an attorney who's trying to get you to hire him or her.
On the other hand, if you have an attorney who actually listens, who asks you questions and then tells you
"Well you have a very solid case, I'm a little bit worried about this, this, and this, and my advice is that you should do this and this to make your case stronger."
In my opinion, that's the kind of lawyer you want to talk to.
Don't Take Cases Off Of Other Attorneys
Now, it turns out there were other issues when the client was talking to this attorney. But I still told the client to sleep on it and think about it. Because other than the bad bed signed manner and some rude comments and not really wanting to listen to the client, it sounded to me like this attorney was doing a good job. He was telling the client "If you didn't go to the doctor right away, that's a challenge, and if you're claiming all these serious injuries but you stopped going to the doctor for whatever reason that makes the case more challenging". that's the most valuable information you're going to get from an attorney on an injury consultation.
I don't take cases off people I know or if it sounds like the other attorney is doing the right thing. Otherwise if it's vague I won't take the case. I just tell the client stick with who you've got and that's ultimately what happened here. He's going to give this attorney another shot and stick with them and that's probably for the best.
Sympathy And Empathy For Other Attorneys
Now, do I make any money? Would I make money if I took the case? Yes, but it's not the right thing to do. Being an attorney, high pressure job, lots of irons in the fire, lots of balls in the air, a juggling reference. So I have sympathy and empathy for other attorneys who don't stay on top of their callbacks. It happens to me sometimes. I'm a pretty good communicator and I'm a pretty good listener, so I know it's not always easy to be those things if you're really under the gun, and a lot of attorneys are under the gun. I try and put myself in the other guy's shoes.
A Valuable Consultation
What should you take away from this? Don't necessarily believe that just because an attorney isn't being over the top positive and making you promises, just because the attorney identifies some challenges in the case, does not mean that attorney doesn't want your case. It doesn't mean that he or she is negative about your case. It doesn't mean that he or she isn't going to fight for your case. It may just mean that they really want to give you a valuable consultation.
I'm always nice to people during a consultation. But I'll tell people "hey this really hurts your case". Usually people take it well. I think the idea that people can't handle bad news is a myth. Any adult person out there has had life throw them some curve balls and they can handle it, but what they want is honesty.
I hope that information helps you and gives you some perspective on these sorts of things.
